Maybe you've been waiting to start planning digitally for all kinds of reasons. But you've been thinking about it. Seriously.

Well, spring may be a really good time to make the transition. Some of the big planner companies are coming out with their new designs this month. And they are pretty. Very pretty. And heavy to carry around. And messy to decorate. (Notice I keep harping on that!).

And if you've just spent two weeks doing your spring cleaning, you really don't want to deal with sticker paper all over the house. Believe me.

So spring may be absolutely the perfect time to become a digital planner girl or guy.

To help you out, my favorite planner guru, Tam Spires, has decided to re-introduce her dated planners as well as some cool undated planners in her shop at Spires Media. Tam closed her shop temporarily, thinking maybe she'd launch a membership site, but reopened the shop not too long ago. If you had noticed the coupon for her store was no longer up, that was why. But the coupon for 20% off with the code GRANDMADIDI is still good, and I'll be putting the coupon back on the sidebar today.

I'm also putting new digital planners and other digital items in my shop on Etsy. My problem is that I really enjoy the creative aspect of designing them, then suddenly I have a ton of them done and it takes forever to get them uploaded. But over the next few days, look for some new arrivals.

I want to point out some differences in different designers' planners to help you make your decisions. Tam Spires is the grandmaster. Her attention to detail is not surpassed. She has shared her expertise with many new designers, and has made her template available for designers who want to sell planners. This is good news, because even though the base may be the same, each designer will put his or her own special touches on the finished product, and each digital planner will be special. I've said it many times, and it is still true--choices are good. I don't see the designers as competitors, but as fellow travelers. And we get ideas from one another and put our own spin on them. My planners are more decorative than a lot of them, and this is partly due to the fact that a couple of people who have asked me to design something especially for them, have requested planners that are pretty but don't need a lot of extra decorating. These planners are fun for me to design because I love color!

Some of the other planners are simple and ready for the buyer to do the decorating. So again, you have choices.

And nearly all of us are offering horizontal, vertical and mini weekly designs. More choices.

Going back to Tam's dated planners...I am so glad she decided to revive these, and right now she will do custom orders, so you can order exactly the color you want, plus any extras she offers, all for one price. It's a good deal.

You will notice a price difference between undated planners and dated planners. Don't let that throw you. Doing the links for a fully dated planner is a tedious task. Honestly, I tried doing one, and gave up. A lot of the undated planners have hyperlinks to take you to the first page of a month or to special sections, but the dated planners require not only adding in the days and dates, but also linking from a day on the monthly calendar to the corresponding week in the weekly sections. It's a slow process. So if you really want a dated digital planner, keep that in mind. A lot of work goes into creating a dated planner, and the extra cost is very much justified.

I have referred several people to Tam after they have asked me to do a dated planner for them. I can tell you for sure, Tam would do a better job than I would because the tediousness frustrates me. And she's just darn good at what she does.

On the other hand, I'm lowering prices on my undated planners because for me, they are getting easier to make, and I have a lot of them to offer. I want to make it easier for people to get into digital planning, journaling, memory keeping and recipe keeping.

I've just reduced the prices on all planners, notebooks and travelers notebooks in the shop, and have a sale going for the next couple of weeks. Plus, there is a 50% coupon in the sidebar right now which is good till the end of the month. A new coupon will appear April 1, but with the drastic reductions I've already taken, the new coupon probably won't be as high. However, any way you look at it, buying a digital planner is a good deal!

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And now for a freebie...just because.

I love to keep my recipes on my iPad. I have a cool kitchen towel holder that doubles as a tablet stand, so I can keep it handy where it doesn't take up extra space on the counter top.

I put a couple of recipe keepers in the shop last month, but last night I was looking at some recipe cards I saw online, and thought how cool it might be to create a "card" that would work in GoodNotes. Copying a recipe to it would be easier than with a real card because it is so much bigger. Plus, I could copy/paste recipes from web sites along with photos of the dishes.

I put three sets of cards online. They each have different themes, but all have 50 recipe cards and some category cards. I also included some plain lined cards for recipes that take up more room. As with all my digital planners, notebooks, and other items, each page can be duplicated and/or moved to wherever you want to put it in order.

The freebie is a smaller version of the card sets...not as many recipe cards or lined cards, and I left the category cards blank so you can decide how to organize your recipes. But, as with others, you can duplicate and rearrange to your heart's content.

My internet is being very slow, so I am having trouble uploading the screenshots, but if you can see the thumbnails in the sidebar from my shop, the ones for sale are showing up there. The freebie is very similar. I will try to get the pictures up here later.

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Author

Welcome! I'm Dianne, a retired journalism teacher and publications adviser who is still addicted to planning and playing with technology. I share my life today with my husband Buz, six kids and their significant others, 21 grandchildren, 2 great grandchildren, 10 goats, 11 chickens, 4 dogs and a potbellied pig.

​I'm into planner sticker designing and have a shop on Etsy and I also enjoy Bible journaling.

I am in no way affiliated with Seriously Simple Digital Planners, Spires Media, iPlanner Digital Planners or Digitally Speaking. I purchase all digital planners and am not compensated in any way for reviews or articles.

Nor am I affiliated in any way with GoodNotes, MetamojiNotes or OneNote or any other app which may be mentioned here.

All opinions are my own.

I am, however, the owner/designer of DiDiDigi-Planners by Grandma DiDi Designs.